I just received my "new" phone. It's a used Pixel 3XL. It's a major step up from my Moto Play4 but about 1.5 generations old. The Pixel 4 series started selling in Oct 2019, and in Oct 2020 we should see the Pixel 5. So why is my phone out of date? Costs and needs.
$164. That's how much the phone cost, shipping included. Side note, everyone is on Amazon but Ebay is where the real deals are. If you're buying refurbished items, always remember to search Ebay. Anyway, a new phone from Apple, Samsung and Google is generally $1,000 or more at this point. The new phones are undeniably better, but I don't need the better-ness. My photos are generally work related, meaning I'm taking a picture of a leaking pipe or cracked tile. I have no interest in photos or learning how to take great ones.
That said, the Pixel 3XL is a notable change in my cell phone buying strategy. Previously, I would purchase low-end new phones, similar to the Moto Play4, ($200-ish, new). The problem is after about a year they'd become so slow they'd need to be replaced. Luckily motorola covers the phone for 1 year so at the 11 month mark I would notify them of the issue and they would send a new phone to last the 2nd year.
As I've stated in other posts, one purpose of this blog experiment is to learn about social media. How it works from the producers side of the operation. If I'm going to produce, I'll need to upgrade the camera, software and processing power I'm carrying in my pocket. The Pixel 3XL should accomplish this mission easily.
Now lets talk about phone prices. New phones are definitely expensive ($1,000+), but they're so advanced that if they existed in previous years, they would be worth substantially more. Can you imagine what an iPhone 11 would cost if you could get one in 2015? $5000? I'm not sure, but definitely more than the $999 at the time of this writing. My point is prices keep falling and you can get great tech in your hands for less than you could last year, and that's true of every year going forward.
This applies to cars, televisions, GPS, computers, robots, etc. In March 2020, crude oil is $30/bbl. Technology allowed the US and Canada to produce oil from shale deposits at roughly $40/bbl. OPEC and Russia are fighting back, flooding the old market to put the US/CA producers out of business. They might succeed in the short term, but as technology becomes better, prices will continue to fall (not linearly of course).
If you like new tech, feel confident it's almost always a good deal. But also try to be aware of your decision to purchase the latest and greatest, maybe you don't need it after all.
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